. efforts like this one helped president obama beat mitt romney among hispanic voters by 3-1innevada, costingthe republicans the white house. >> they think about us like a second thought. like, oh, we need to have hispanics, we may not be able to win. >> reporter: this las vegas businessman, a republican for 40 years, says many his n his party businessman, a republican for 40 years, says many his n his party need to learn to reach out, too, and soften their stance on immigration such as on programs to give illegal immigrants permission to work if they were brought to the u.s. as children. right now as it stands, do you believe there are enough republicans who belief in compromise on immigration? >> well, i want to believe that we believe. >> reporter: do you believe it right now? >> yes, because if i don't believe it i wouldn't be able to be a republican. >> reporter: in florida, colorado, and nevada, the percentage of the electorate that is hispanic has increased one percentage point or more in the last four years. by 2016, at least two million more latinos will be eligible to vote

with the nine we've been talkingabout:nevada, colorado,iowa, wisconsin, iowa, new hampshire, virginia, north carolina and florida. that's where the competition will be tonight because those states it's just too close and so now we wait. >> pelley: john, thank you. the biggest of those battleground states are florida, ohio, and virginia. and that is where the candidates have been spending a lot of time since the republican convention. the obama-biden ticket in blue and the romney-ryan ticket in those red dots you see there. we have correspondents in all three of those states tonight and first dean reynolds is in the birthplace of seven american presidents, the state of ohio. dean? >> reporter: good evening, scott, from the statehouse in columbus. you know, ohio started voting early, five weeks ago and 1,787,000 people took advantage of that opportunity, the highest number in the state's history. we noticed today as well that a lot of people are casting provisional ballots, they go to people whose address doesn't match their registration or who requested an absentee ballot from the state but n

about iowaandnevada. theythink they're ahead by a little there florida. and they may be right. but republicans tend to do better at getting their voters out on election day, so they can turn all that around and the romney people are arguing that the enthusiasm and the intensity they're seeing at their rallies will make that happen. i have to say, when you clear away all the spin, it is coming down to one thing: turnout. which side gets their voters to the polls tomorrow? and just to add that one note of suspense to all of that: it's that storm heading toward florida tonight. >> pelley: bob, thank you very much. as you know, under our constitution we don't vote directly for a presidential candidate, we are choosing electors for each of the candidates. each state has many as electors has it has members of congress and the senate. it takes 270 of those electors to win and our political director john dickerson is here to show us how each candidate could reach that number. john? >> scott, all 50 states contribute electoral votes to that 270 number. but cbs news estimates that 41 of

stateofnevada. nancy.>> reporter: scott, white house aides are making sure we know the president is still conducting the federal response to sandy while he's on the road, making conference calls to governors in the storm area between rallies, but he's also make up for lost time, hitting three or four states a day between now and the election. the president bounded back on to the campaign trail wearing a bomber jacket emblazoned with his title-- commander in chief. >> it is good to be back in green bay, wisconsin! >> reporter: at each stop, he started by sharing lessons from hurricane sandy. >> when disaster strikes, we see america at its best. all the petty differences that consumeinous normal times, all seem to melt away. >> reporter: both sides acknowledge the storm provided mr. obama with a valuable opportunity to show bipartisan leadership in the closing days of this race. republican new jersey governor and romney supporter chris christie repeatedly praised the president's performance and his compassion. >> you're going t it to be okay. everybody is safe. >> reporter: today,